Thread: Hand Nail or Nail Gun??

An air nailer will do the job no worries.

Hire a compressor (if you don't have one) and the nailer.

Thanks Trevor, what type of nails would you reckon would do the job?

You certainly will have to predrill and handnail the ends. On the ends you might also touch a 3.5mm drill in the hole to relieve the pressure from the nail head. You might try a coil nailer for the middle nails, but if they split it you'll have to revert to predrill and handnail. Use 50x2.8mm Gal nails hammered flush to the surface.

Cheers
Michael

What sort of joist timber? HW I hope. I'm not a fan of the dome head nails used in coil nail guns, but thats just a personal preference. I reckon the hand nailed 50 x 2.8 bullet head gals are the go if you can be bothered hand nailing. If its treated pine use a longer nail & if using the coil nailer in treated pine joists go for ring shank, in HW use twist or spiral shank. Have a look at this stuff, its worth the effort.http://www.joistrip.com/

thanks carpenter the joists are jarrah, if hand nailing what size drill bit would you reccomend?

Damn those joists will be hard. I just finished my deck using all hardwood and found when I started I bent far more nails than I managed to get in ( 100m2 is a fair bit of deck to hand nail too ) so I ended up gluing and screwing. It took a while but I'm confident that sucker won't move.

I used say a 2mm drill bit with 2.7mm ( I think ) Timberlock nails when I started and damned if I bent a fair few and snapped countless drill bits. Then when I counterpunched sometimes the nail cocked and looked awful so I reverted to screws, these had to be pre drilled and countersunk too bit they looked heaps better. I ended up puttying all the holes with glazing putty cause the nails looked so bad.

I'd use a 2.5mm drill for the 2.8mm nail. You may have to drill the full nail depth but if the joists allow, drill a bit shorter or even just the deck board.

Cheers
Michael

Those boards are pretty wide for the thickness...hope you don't end up with cupping problems.

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